[quote=Zeitgeist]They are efficient little predators, the distant relations of dinosaurs and they eat their weight in weed seeds, the swallows (which do not use the feeder) eat tons of insects and the others eat their share of bugs. [/quote]
Sure, but when you feed them, that’s just one more bug that doesn’t get eaten.
[quote=Zeitgeist]
Now Dave, what do the people who receive welfare contribute to the economy? [/quote]
They contribute very little. No argument there. But that’s not the point of welfare in my eyes. Throwing a little money their way keeps SOME of them from robbing and killing us. I can’t and won’t make the argument that welfare is efficient from a purely economic standpoint; it isn’t. But from a social standpoint – that is, from the standpoint of keeping folks from revolting – welfare is pretty efficient. I’ve said this many times here at the Pigg: In my view, taxes and redistribution aren’t about economic efficiency. On the contrary, they are about providing an opiate of support to a large group of folks who might otherwise kill us.
If you want to see a highly unregulated (free market) economy where few folks pay taxes, there’s virtually no support for the lower classes, and the income disparity is off the charts, head down to Mexico. Most wealthy folks there have bodyguards or are concerned because they don’t have them. I personally know several people that have been kidnapped in Mexico and one that was killed. Personally I don’t want the U.S. to resemble Mexico. But that’s what happens when income inequality reaches a certain point and the masses don’t like what they see. I realize that conflicts with the Libertarian Fantasy (one that I believed in many years ago), but that’s reality.
